Can I get $1?

Funny how life gets in the way of everything else.

I write blog posts in my head pretty much everyday. Even more than I write Facebook status in my head, which is saying a lot.

I have a lot of projects and updates I need to be post, but they’ll have to wait for another day.

Today, I’d like to talk about auction sales. The last auction sale I went to was for my great-grandma. I think I was 5 or 6. I don’t remember much. It was hot. Mom wasn’t there so I got to eat and drink whatever I wanted.

My second auction sale was Saturday, July 14th. And it was a very different experience.

But, let’s start at the beginning. 18 months ago, my wonderful FIL passed away unexpectedly. He was in a horrible accident and left us way to soon. I loved him. He was a great man. Kind and funny. I was very lucky to have met him and know him for 13+ years. When I met my husband, my FIL was a contractor. He had a construction company, doing remodels, managing rental houses, finding great deals wherever he could. Before that he was a shop teacher. And I swear he knew everyone from South Dakota to Canada, Montana to Wisconsin. You might think that’s an exaggeration, but I’m not kidding. He never knew a stranger. And everyone he met immediately loved him.

He did have faults, though, and one was a big one. He liked junk. And he had a lot of it.

So, while I loved him, I also cursed him. He had so.much.stuff. Too much stuff. At least to someone going through it all, it seemed that way. Buildings on the farm, buildings in town, lots here, lots there…all of them full of stuff. All full of crap treasures. But it wasn’t just his stuff. He also had his parent's stuff, his in-law’s stuff and his uncle’s stuff. Add that all up and you have a lot of stuff. Stuff to sort, stuff to throw, stuff to keep and stuff to sell.  Stuff, stuff and more stuff. Hours, days and weekends worth of stuff.

Sparky, his mom, his sisters, BIL, nephews and I have spent quite a few days moving, sorting and throwing away all this stuff. And for what? To get ready for an auction sale. And this was no ordinary auction sale. Vehicles, tools, antiques, appliances, cabinets, paint, shovels, rubber boots. You name it, we had it. A junk lovers dream. Obviously, family gets first shot on stuff. The good stuff. The stuff my FIL pulled out of old barns, rental houses and anywhere else he found something he thought could be reused. The stuff he built, the stuff he treasured, the stuff he thought was good enough to bring home. The stuff he wanted to fill up his bins and buildings and yard with.

This is my some of my good stuff:






It's great stuff. Stuff that makes me happy. Stuff that I know will go great in our house. Stuff that means something. Stuff that Sparky agreed could come home with us.

And this is what the a stuff at the auction looked like:

North Dakota in July can go a couple of ways. Hot and humid and no wind. Or hot and kinda humid and 50 mph wind. (Awesome either way.) We ended up with hot and humid and no wind. And still ended up with a great turnout.

We had people in the yard (Sparky’s mom and dad had about 7 acres) at 9am. The auction didn’t start until 11am. (And that's with folks checking out the yard all week.)

The church ladies served a great lunch with homemade fried donuts. (Seriously, if you’ve never had them, come to ND, ask someone to make them for you…you won’t regret it. Bring sugar.)
Like I said, it was a great, sweltering hot, miserable, day.

This is what it looked like when we left on Sunday.

And, while it may look a little sad. All of us were so freaking happy. Almost all of the stuff was gone. My MIL said she wanted to hug every person walking to their pickup or car with a box of stuff. Many, many pickup loads left the yard that day. Many people found treasures to torture pass on to future generations. (Including my dear dad, sigh.)

After this experience, I know I could easily become an auction sale junky. Waiting to get my next fix. My only caveat is, to get the good stuff I just show up and show the auctioneer my number.

Picture Perfect Room?

I don't know that I'll ever have a picture perfect room, but Donna over at Funky Junk Interiors put out a challenge that I think is just the push I need to get moving on our living room. I'd already been thinking about tackling it once the Christmas tree came down. So, I guess now is as good a time as ever!

This room has a lot of great potential and I want it to set the tone for the rest of our house. It faces south, but we have an overhang so it gets a nice soft light that comes in. It's a nice quiet spot to read and drink a cup of tea or to have wine club.

When we first moved in, I wanted to create the feeling of a foyer or hallway since you walk into this room from our front door. So, I had the couch placed so the back faced the door. I thought at one point that I wanted to put a sofa table behind it.

But, it really didn't do what I was hoping it would do.  We had to move the couch to make room for the Christmas tree and after the Christmas tree was gone, we really liked the couch where it was.

It opened up the room and made it feel more welcoming. We've defnitely used it more with it arranged this way than we did before.

But, it definitely needs some help. No curtains, the walls are bare and it's just kinda blah. Uninspiring. Boring. Blech.

See that chair back there? Yeah, I've had it for a year. I've got the fabric bought and it is definitely the inspiration for the rest of the room. (Hint: it doesn't have any red.)

And yes, that is a Thomas basketball hoop stuck to the window. That's what happens when there are no curtains.  And my camera bag on the buffet.  Classy. 



But now we've got a big empty space where the couch was and not much seating. We knew we wanted to leave the couch as is. It was new when we moved in and SUPER comfy (great for naps!).  I've got the chair I'm going to refinish, but that's it. 

I started playing around with my kitchen chairs to come up with an arrangement I thought would work, but wanted to see an overall floor plan. So, I went out to bhg.com and used their Arrange a Room tool (which is very cool, btw). I played around and finally settled on a final arrangement.

Lots of seating that promotes cozy conversation, but still leaves it open and inviting. Yay!

I can't wait! We've got one new chair already and the other should be here this week.  I've also got curtains that I thought of using in another room that are going to work really well in here.

But, there's a bunch of other stuff to do:

• Paint and reupholster chair (which I've never done before)
• Three new (or new to us) side tables
• New lamp shades or redo the current ones
• New lamp
• Hang curtains
• Update hardware on the buffet (there is a reason there's no close up of it yet)
• Hang artwork/mirror/pictures above couch/buffet/bookshelf
• New lamp for buffet?
• New pillows for couch

And that's just the short list. I have some other things I want to do in there as well, but need to work them out in my head first.

Wish me us luck!



Trunk Makeover and Napkin Pillows

I have a really old trunk. I remember it full of old clothes and dolls at my grandparent's house. It was my great-grandpa's. The orginal lid broke somewhere along the way and he made a "new" one for it. When my grandparent's downsized, it ended up at my parent's house. When I moved I took it with me. It moved from North Dakota to Colorardo and back to North Dakota. Depending on where it's been in the house, it's held board games and blankets. I can't imagine our house without it.

I have no idea what the original color was or if it was even painted before it made it to my grandma's house. It was painted a sage green when I took it from mom and dad's, and I covered the top with some batting and cream fabric with leaves on it. (No pictures, sorry!)

Then, when we re-decorated our basement, I painted it again and recovered it with a faux animal print. It was going in the "man cave" and I had recovered the poker table chairs with the same fabric.

Well, now that we are in our new house, it's time to change it up again.

After taking the lid off, I got all the necessary tools together to take the old fabric off. And yes, wine is a necessary tool for just about every project I do. In the winter, it's red and in the summer it's white.

And, of course I had to get my Emily Henderson fix in too.

A little paint and fabric later, and here it is transformed!

Isn't it amazing what a little paint and a yard of fabric can do?

The pillows on the chairs were a recent project too. As I was wondering around Burlington Coat Factory, I saw these great napkins.

See the price tag?

I had planned on making some pillows out of the pillows that came with our new couch. So, when I saw the color and the pattern on these napkins, I couldn't resist. I bought four of them. 

And turned this:

Into two of these:

For a whopping $8. Woo hoo!

All I did was put right sides together and sewed three sides shut, stuffed them with the old pillow stuffing and sewed up the last side. Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy.

We are slowly working on the family room and I have some other ideas and projects on my list of things to do to add more color and fun to the room.  

Linking up to:

I Heart Naptime

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Beautiful old dresser

I knew that I wanted to have an old dresser or buffet for the entry of our house. I had this picture in my head of an antique with cool lamps and a great picture above it.  Who knew that I'd find exactly what I was looking for at my in-laws' house?

I was down in their basement one day this past winter, when I saw her. A beautiful old dresser. I fell in love.

I said to my husband, "Do you know what your dad was going to do with it? Do you think he'd sell it to me?" His reply, "I don't know, go ask him."

I hustled upstairs to find out. He'd pulled it out of an old house he'd bought. He was going to hire someone to refinish it for him and try to resell it. When I asked him how much he wanted for it, my mother-in-law piped up and said, "Just take it!"

Um, ok...you don't have to tell me twice.

And just like that she was mine. For free. Woo hoo!

I've never refinished a piece of furniture before.  I'm don't know what kind of work I'm in for, but I'm sure it will be worth it!

Look at that great hardware! (She's missing one pull. If anyone knows where I can find one to match, please let me know!)

And, she has casters! I think they might be my favorite part. 

And look at those curves. Wonderful.

She's been out in the extra garage since before we moved into the house. The rest of the remodel and moving have been the priority. I'm hoping to get to her later this summer. I can't wait to show her to you all prettied up!